Bringing Home the Bacon … and the Onions and the Cheese: Tarte Flambée, Flammekueche, or Alsatian Pizza Bread

December 18, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

One cold, rainy day in October, I sat in front of a fireplace in a  small weinstub, or bistro, in Strasbourg, France, listening to my growling stomach. I couldn’t face another round of choucroute, that heavy Alsatian ode of love to the pig and the cabbage. On the greasy menu, fingerprints from previous guests clearly visible on the laminated plastic, one dish stood out: Flammekueche, also known as “Tarte Flambée.” I ordered it. And a bottle of Alsatian Riesling, never […]

Categories: Food writing, French Cooking, Recipes • Tags: Alsace, Bacon, Bread, Cuisine Francaise, Culinary History, Flammekueche, Food, Food History, France, French Cooking, Tarte Flambee

Obesity and the Birth of France: Louis the Fat and Centralization of Power

May 22, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Nothing is new under the sun, including the problems of obesity. Is obesity ever a good thing? What if someone told you that obesity, in essence, led to what we now know as the nation of France? It throws French food into a whole new light, actually. If you believe the comments of Abbot Suger in his “selective biography” — or better said “panegyric” — of France’s Capetian king, Louis VI or “Louis the Fat” (Louis le Gros in French), […]

Categories: France, French Cooking • Tags: Abbot Suger, Cuisine Francaise, French Cooking, Ile-de-France, Louis le Gros, Louis the Fat, Louis VI

The Cookbooks on Their Shelves: The First English-Language French Cookbooks in the United States, or, Who was Sulpice Barué?

May 17, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Much has been made of Thomas Jefferson’s influence on the “Frenchification” of cuisine in the young United States and in American diplomatic circles. Just take a look at “The French Touch,” a chapter in Even Jones’s American Food: The Gastronomic Story (1990) or Karen Hess’s “Thomas Jefferson’s Table: Evidence and Influences,” in Dining at Monticello (2005). But, as we have seen, other factors — including the hiring of French chefs by the British upper-class and the arrival of the French […]

Categories: Chefs, Cookbooks, France, French Cooking, Reference • Tags: Cuisine Francaise, Eliza Leslie, France, French Cooking, French Domestic Cookery, La Petite Cuisiniere Habile, Louis Eustache Ude, Madame Louise-Auguste B.-Utrecht-Friedel, Sulpice Barué, The French Cook, Vincent La Chapelle

The Fish of France: Weever (Trachinus draco Linnaeus )

May 13, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

A bouillabaisse fish, the weever is. Mentioned in William Verral’s A Complete System of Cookery (1759) as “weaver,” the weever fish’s spines emit poison. According to Clifford Wright, a restaurateur in Marseille likely invented bouillabaisse, an expensive version of fish stew and not really the traditional fisherman’s fish boil.  So much for romantic nostalgia and visions of bereted shivering men huddled around a bubbling pot of fish tails and mussel shells. Charles Dickens expounded on bouillabaisse in a most enticing way in Household […]

Categories: French Cooking, Photography • Tags: bouillabaisse, Cuisine Francaise, Fish, France, French Cooking, French cuisine, Soups and Stews, Trachinus draco Linnaeus, Weever

Will Verral’s Masterpiece of 1759: A Complete System of Cookery

May 11, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

The English could never catch a break in the kitchen. Why, as early as 1759, in A Complete System of Cookery, an innkeeper/author named Will Verral sniffed at the ragtag equipment that passed for a batterie de cuisine in even upper-class English households. Stir in the English and French antagonisms brought about by long enmity, and you have indeed a fine kettle of fish. Here’s what our Will said to the cook in one such establishment, he being hired to cater […]

Categories: Chefs, Cookbooks, England, English Cooking, Fish, France, French Cooking • Tags: A Complete System of Cookery, Cuisine Francaise, French Cooking, Pierre de St.-Clouet, Thomas Pelham-Holles, William Verral

The Duke of Newcastle’s Pique, or, A Good Chef is Hard to Find

May 7, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

The diarist Samuel Pepys,  no mean observer of human foibles that relieve the monotony of day-to-day human life, recorded — almost in real-time —  the Francophilic transformation of the English nobility after the 1660 Restoration of the Stuart monarchy. Since Pepys devoted a portion of his library to cookery, it’s not surprising that his diary records some of  the culinary aspects of the Restoration. One of Pepy’s most favored books bore the title L’école parfaite des officiers de bouche, written […]

Categories: Chefs, England, English Cooking, France, French Cooking, Methods • Tags: Cuisine Francaise, Duke of Newcastle, Earl of Albemarle, France, French cuisine, London, Pierre St.-Clouet, Samuel Pepys, Tammany Hall, Thomas Pelham-Holles 1st Duke of Newcastle, William Keppel

French Chefs Abroad: Alexis Soyer and His Irish Famine Soup Kitchen

April 26, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

It is to be regretted that men of science do not interest themselves more than they do on a subject of such vast magnitude as this; for I feel confident that the food of a country might be increased at least one-third, if the culinary science was properly developed, instead of its being slighted as it is now. ~~ Alexis Soyer, A Shilling Cookbook (1855) Jamie Oliver’s fight to bring nutritional nirvana to West Virginia might remind you of somebody. […]

Categories: Beef, Chefs, Cooking, England, France, French Cooking, Nutrition, Soup • Tags: Alcide Mirobolant, Alexis Benoît Soyer, Cuisine Francaise, England, Famine Soup, France, French cuisine, Irish Famine, Pendennis, Reform Club, William Makepeace Thackeray

Monkfish: A Little Love, French-Style

April 18, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

I first gazed on his ugly mug in French-influenced Morocco, more precisely at the fish market in Rabat. And like Beauty with the Beast, I fell in love. Sea devil. Crapaud. Baudroie. Lotte. Goosefish. Anglerfish. Poor Man’s Lobster. … It seems his name is Legion (Nomen mihi Legio est, quia multi sumus) … . Monkfish (Lophius piscatorius). Two-thirds of the body is just skull. Tiny triangular-shaped teeth line the rounded jaws that some call “Jaws of Hell,” looking for all the […]

Categories: Fish, Food writing, French Cooking, Recipes, Tomatoes • Tags: Baudroie, Capers, Cuisine Francaise, Food, France, French Cooking, Monkfish, Morocco, Provence, Rabat

Scenes from La France Profonde

April 15, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Categories: Apples, France, French Cooking, Photography, Uncategorized • Tags: Advertising, Apples, Cuisine Francaise, Food Photography, France, French cuisine, Menus

Scenes from La France Profonde

March 25, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Categories: France, French Cooking, Photography, Uncategorized • Tags: Cochon, Cuisine Francaise, France, French cuisine, Langue, Musseaux, Oreille, Photography, Pied, Pig Ears, Pig Feet, Pig Snouts

Panis gravis, or Bread, Endless Nurturer

March 23, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

A whole world dwells within each tiny  seed. Of porridge,  of bread, of love it whispers – in all these lies the promise of wheat. With it all comes both the caress of crumbs and the sour stink of brown bread and garlic, the pain of brokenness … and the bitter bread of exile. But yet there’s this … In the beginning, the pure green frenzy of genesis, sprouting skyward. And then, suddenly, fields swaying in the wind, like breakers […]

Categories: Bread, France, French Cooking, Photography • Tags: Bread, Cuisine Francaise, Fougasse, France, French Cooking, Meditations, Pain de France

Vitis, Vin: Gift of Life

March 16, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Reach out a hand and take the ruby fruit, gift grown of sun and rain. Vitis. Grapes. Gift too of earth, of chalky soil, sloping and stone-filled, redolent with vistas and vast horizons. Hard toil, yes — certainly this truth the hands of peasants knew. Cutting and pruning, trimming back. Thus, from that harsh care, life blooms and grows amidst the green of summer. Beneath lacy leaves and soft spiraling tendrils, tiny globes pregnant with sweet nectar lie, dormant, red […]

Categories: Agriculture, France, French Cooking, Photography, Uncategorized • Tags: Cuisine Francaise, France, French Cooking, Grapes, Photography, Vineyards, Vintners, Wine

Scenes from La France Profonde

March 12, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Categories: France, French Cooking, Photography • Tags: Cuisine Francaise, France, French Cooking, Markets, Photography, Red Onions

Scenes from La France Profonde

March 5, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

       

Categories: France, French Cooking, Photography • Tags: Cuisine Francaise, France, French Cooking

Scenes from La France Profonde

February 25, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

     

Categories: France, French Cooking • Tags: Cuisine Francaise, France, French Cooking, Photography

Thomas Jefferson: The Francophile Who Became the First U.S. “Foodie”

February 21, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Thomas Jefferson. President. Scientist. Writer. Man of many passions, some hidden, some not. In his writings and in his actions, food clearly revealed itself as one of those passions. Above all, Jefferson was a Francophile. From the design of his dining room in his house, Monticello, to the gardens surrounding him in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, from Paris to the White House — Jefferson’s obsession with food and its preparation inspired him to train his African slaves, particularly […]

Categories: American Cooking, Desserts, French Cooking, Recipes, Southern Food, White House • Tags: American Presidents, Cooks, Cuisine Francaise, Etienne Lemaire, Food, France, French Cooking, Fritters, James Hemings, Karen hess, Mary Randolph, Monticello, Southern cooking, The Virginia House-wife, Thomas Jefferson

Scenes from La France Profonde

February 18, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Categories: Fish, France, French Cooking, Photography, Wine • Tags: Cuisine Francaise, Fish, France, French cuisine, Grape vines

Chartreuse and the Vallée du Désert: The Elixir of Life

February 16, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

While writing my brief “Gherkins & Tomatoes” blog post, “Cookbooks for a Desert Island, or an Autumn Afternoon,” I thumbed through de Groot’s book once more, swearing I would cook “Green Beans Sautéed in Cream” and “Potato Pancakes of the Mountains.” The price of peace and solitude has been unending struggle. ~~Roy Andries de Groot, The Auberge of the Flowering Hearth Every once in a while, a book speaks to my soul, over and over again. Roy Andries de Groot’s […]

Categories: Book Reviews, French Cooking, Recipes • Tags: Chartreuse, Cooking, Cooks, Cuisine Francaise, Food, France, French Cooking, Recipes, Roy Andries de Groot

FOOD FOR ART’S SAKE: Eating with the Impressionists

February 7, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

In celebrating art, the Western world owes a tremendous debt to France. Once a mecca for Impressionist artists and others, France nurtured both their souls and their bellies. And in France, art goes back a long way, back to the time of Cro-Magnon man who left his indelible marks on the dim damp walls of the caves of Lascaux in the Dordogne area of southwestern France.

Categories: Art, Bibliographies, Food Columns, French Cooking, Mushrooms, Pies--Savory, Potatoes, Recipes • Tags: Artists, Claude Monet, Cuisine Francaise, Fish, Food, France, French Cooking, Impressionism, Luncheon of the Boating Party, Mushrooms, Potato, Quiche, Recipes, Salon des Refusés, Shrimp

Scenes from La France Profonde

February 5, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Categories: France, French Cooking, Photography, Pork, Restaurants • Tags: Charcuterie, Cuisine Francaise, France, French Cooking

To India, via Paris’s Le Passage Brady

January 24, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

In spite of French presence in India for a couple of centuries, trying to find Indian curry in France tends to be a bit of a chore. The first Indian restaurant didn’t open in Paris until 1975. Those in the know (mostly British expatriates pining for curry in London) lament the lack of good Indian food, although there’s an occasional stampede to certain Indian restaurants in parts of Paris, only to find that the owners are Pakistanis.  And Richard C. Morais’s […]

Categories: Asian Cooking, Chefs, France, French Cooking, India, Spices • Tags: Cuisine Francaise, Cuisine indienne, Curry, France, French cuisine, French India, India, Indian Cooking, Paris, Passage Brady, Spices, Vadouvan

Scenes from La France Profonde

January 23, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

[Unless otherwise noted, all photos by C. Bertelsen]

Categories: Art, Chicken, Cooking, France, French Cooking, Mushrooms, Photography • Tags: Chanterelles, Cuisine Francaise, France, French Cooking, Mushrooms, Pomegranates

East is East and West is West: Pondicherry and French Curry

January 20, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

In Pondicherry, Pondichéry, or Puducherry as it is now called again (since 2006), you still see streets sparkling with old colonial buildings, dating back to a time when passersby heard French spoken daily. Yet, those buildings, policemen’s hats, and a fully functioning French lycée or school, are among the few overt signs that you’ll notice of France’s colonial presence in India. The French colonized a piece of India in the 1600s, leaving only in 1954. After the Treaty of Paris […]

Categories: Cooking, France, French Cooking, India, Menus • Tags: Antoine Beauvilliers, Colonialism, Colonialisme, Cooking, Cuisine Francaise, Culinary History, Curry, France, French cuisine, India, Joseph François Dupleix, L’Art de cuisinier, Pondicherry, Post-Colonialism, Puducherry

Culinary Diffusion? Yes, in Alain Ducasse’s Kitchens

January 18, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

In a way, it’s the French version of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire.” World-famous French chef, Alain Ducasse, chose fifteen women from Sarcelles, a suburb of Paris housing mostly poor immigrants mainly from France’s former North African colonies. An article in The New York Times tells the whole story, almost a Cinderella saga: 15 Women Win Golden Tickets to Alain Ducasse’s Kitchens – NYTimes.com All are from Sarcelles, all were either born outside of France or are first generation immigrants. […]

Categories: Africa, African Cooking, Arab cooking, Chefs, Cooking, French Cooking • Tags: Alain Ducasse, Chef, Cooking schools, Cuisine Francaise, France, French cuisine, Haute Cuisine, Mali, North Africa, Paris, Sarcelles

If on a Winter’s Night, a Bowl of Garbure …

January 14, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Nights spent huddled by fires snapping  and popping and providing respite from the howling winds and wolves, when you think of the dark and the cold and the danger, don’t you — all snuggled up in your down comforter or quilt passed down from your great-grandmother — feel a slight shiver? Of déjà vu? Not the cold. Maybe that’s why you long for a hearty pot of vegetable soup laced with salted fatty meat when winter slithers through the pines and […]

Categories: Beans, Cabbage, Carrots, France, French Cooking, Pork • Tags: Cuisine Francaise, France, French Cooking, Garbure, Gascony, Jambon, Pork, Saucisses, Soup, Soupe

The Things They Carried*: Brief Glimpses of French Food in Vietnam

January 3, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

In the film, “Indochine,” you sense the rampant orientalism that made Edward Said one of the most quoted scholars on the subject of colonialism and the creation of the “Other.” The heat, the fans, the sweat, the passions, the exoticism and erotocism, all these visual cues recreate the mental picture many of us have regarding colonialism, at least of the type practiced by the Western powers in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Mix in the complex history of Vietnam and […]

Categories: Asian Cooking, France, French Cooking • Tags: Baguette, Colonialism, Colonialisme, Croissants, Cuisine Francaise, Dalat, France, French cuisine, Indochine, Pain, Post-Colonialism, Vietnam

And a Cake Fit for Three Kings: Galette/Gateau des Rois

December 31, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Bonne Année! Happy New Year! I  first ate Galette des Rois in Paris, on a cold, rainy January day. The smell of the almond-paste filling seemed to reach right out through the door of the nameless little patisserie near the Rue Monge and grab me by the lapels of my  too-thin coat. I couldn’t wait to get back to my hotel room, and so I didn’t. With the first bite, just outside the door, to the shock of the French women […]

Categories: Baking, France, French Cooking • Tags: Bonne Année, Cake, Cuisine Francaise, Epiphanie, Epiphany, Fèves, Galette des Rois, Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Le Gâteau des Rois, New Year, Pain

Thinking of Others as You Bite into that Bûche de Noël

December 20, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

David Lebovitz — a whiz of a pastry chef, cookbook author, and food blogger — got me thinking this morning about the meaning of all the glitz and glitter out there, if only I could just get out of my icy driveway. David is giving away a set of Le Creuset cookware, a gift to him from the French cookware company Le Creuset. To sign up for the random drawing, all you have to do is comment on his post […]

Categories: Cakes, Chocolate, Christmas, France, French Cooking • Tags: Bûche de Noël, Charity, Christmas, Cuisine Francaise, David Lebovitz, France, French Cooking, Gateaux, Joyeux Noël, Le Creuset, Partners in Health

Oreillettes, A Part of Provence’s Thirteen Desserts

December 13, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Fried dough, a universal love. Grease, sugar, what more could you dream of? In the south of France,  when you want fried dough, you’ll get oreillettes. As with any traditional holiday dish, each cook has his or her version. The signature taste with these oreillettes is the orange flower water. In New Orleans, oreillettes come with a splash of rum, possibly because it was available and because orange flower water wasn’t. Oreillettes (English version) 3 eggs 2 T. orange flower […]

Categories: Christmas, Cooking, Desserts, France, French Cooking, Photography • Tags: Cuisine Francaise, France, French Cooking, Oreillettes, Provence, Thirteen Desserts, Treize Desserts

The Provençal Thirteen: Fennel- and Cumin-Scented Sablés

December 10, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

In France, you’ll find sablés,  buttery cookies that originated in Normandy. (You know they had all that butter to get rid of there.) Most sablés are sweet. But in Provence, for the famous Thirteen Desserts of Christmas Eve, cooks prefer savory little disks perfumed with fennel and cumin. Cumin? How did cumin get into mix? Apparently cumin arrived in Marseilles in spice shipments during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Originating in the eastern Mediterranean, cumin didn’t have to travel […]

Categories: Baking, Christmas, Cookies, Cooking, France, French Cooking, Spices • Tags: Christmas, Cuisine Francaise, France, French Cooking, Provence, Sablés, Thirteen Desserts, Treize Desserts

Nougat Noir, or Black Nougat, Another of the Thirteen Desserts

December 9, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

A Provençal gros souper (Christmas Eve dinner) would not be correct without some nougat noir to challenge the skill of your dentist and possibly lay waste to your dental work. In other words, nougat noir can be a bête [bite!] noire*, if you’re not careful. For nougat noir is a hard candy, not the pillowy stuff you might be thinking of. Several types of nougat exist, thanks to the Arabs and the enterprising people of sixteenth- century Montélimar in France. You will […]

Categories: Christmas, Cooking, France, French Cooking, Honey • Tags: Black Nougat, Christmas, Cooking, Cuisine Francaise, France, French Cooking, Nougat Noir, Provence, Thirteen Desserts, Treize Desserts

Les Quatre Mendiants au Chocolat, A Candy Offshoot of Provence’s Thirteen Christmas Desserts

December 8, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Gorgeous, huh? Yummy? You bet! And the best part is that, with a quick flick of a switch and your wrist, you too can make these beauties, part of the Thirteen Desserts of a Provençal Christmas. Mendiants au Chocolat Noir ou Blanc Makes about 75 – 100 candies, depending on size of circles 1 pound dark bittersweet chocolate (60 – 70% cacao) or good-quality white chocolate Candied citron Dried figs, cut into small squares Almonds, shelled, blanched if desired, toasted* […]

Categories: Baking, Chocolate, Christmas, Cooking, France, French Cooking • Tags: Christmas, Cuisine Francaise, France, French Cooking, Les Quatre Mendiants, Provence, Recipes, Thirteen Desserts, Treize Desserts

Begging the Question: Les Quatre Mendiants and Provence’s Thirteen Christmas Desserts

December 7, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

The truth is, the dishes associated with Provence’s Thirteen Desserts abound with religious symbolism. Take the Four Beggars, or Les Quatre Mendiants, which symbolize something that we in the secular West have basically lost, a sense of awe and fear about the natural world and all that is in it. The Thirteen Desserts likely represented a way to ensure a righteous, blessed life, free from the challenges of living in times of strife and great uncertainty.  Although today we might […]

Categories: Christmas, Cooking, France, French Cooking, Monasteries, Nuts • Tags: Christmas, Cuisine Francaise, France, French Cooking, Monasteries, Monks, Provence, Quatre Mendiants, Thirteen Desserts, Treize Desserts

Panis focacius, la Gibacié, and la Pompe à l’huîle, Kin Under the Crust, One of the Thirteen

December 6, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Christmas cakes were baking, the famous pompou and fougasse, as they were called, dear to the hearts of the children of old Provence. ~~ Christmas in Legend and Story A Book for Boys and Girls I’ve always loved the “Jacob’s Ladder” look of fougasse. The lacy leaf-like lattice reminds me of the connection between bread and art, with that unspoken tie to pagan sacrifice, manifested in people- and animal-shaped holiday breads and sweets. And, not surprisingly, fougasse is one of the […]

Categories: Bread, Christmas, Cooking, France, French Cooking, Olives • Tags: Bread, Christmas, Cuisine Francaise, Fougasse, France, French Cooking, La pompe à l'huîle, Pain, Treize Desserts

Lillet by Another Means: Vin d’Orange, or, French Christmas Spirit

December 1, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

As I watch the sun, feeble in the dark morning skies at this time of the year, I think of the sunflower-yellow oranges my parents just brought me from Florida. What can I do to preserve a little of that sunlight as we head toward the shortest day and longest night of the year? Why, obviously, I should make Vin d’Orange, perfect for the Thirteen Desserts I’m writing about for the Christmas season. As you might guess,  a bit of […]

Categories: Christmas, France, French Cooking, Wine • Tags: Christmas, Cuisine Francaise, France, French Cooking, Provence, Thirteen Desserts, Treize Desserts, Vin d'Orange

No Partridges, Just Thirteen Desserts: French Christmas Culinary Traditions

November 30, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

I love culinary traditions … and usually I don’t mind cooking all the foods associated with upholding those traditions.  Like Thanksgiving dinner, for example. Turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole (from scratch, mind you), pumpkin pie with whipped cream (crust handmade just prior to baking), and sweet potato casserole (no marshmallows). Mac and cheese, too, if you’re a true Southerner. Culinary traditions pin you to your past, or at least allow you to tie your apron […]

Categories: Christmas, France, French Cooking, Paintings • Tags: Advent, Christmas, Cuisine Francaise, France, French Cooking, Provence, Réveillon, Thirteen Desserts, Treize Desserts

Another Last Word on French Cuisine and UNESCO’s “Intangible Cultural Heritage” Program

November 23, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

The recent inscribing of  ”intangible cultural heritage” status  to “the French gastronomic meal” by UNESCO brought both cheers and jeers to the table. As I wash my hands and get out my Le Creuset terrine baker for the paté de campagne en croûte for Thanksgiving appetizers, I’d like to share a quote with all of you about French cuisine, at least as it exists in the incarnation rewarded with the UNESCO designation: Although it may be commonly agreed, and not by […]

Categories: Cooking, Food News, France, French Cooking • Tags: Bread, Butter, Cuisine Francaise, France, French cuisine, Intangible cultural heritage, Meilleur Ouvrier de France, Patrimoine mondial de l'humanité, Radishes, UNESCO, World Heritage Site

French Cuisine, an Exposition on Medieval Food Not to be Missed

November 22, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Click on the image to “attend” a gorgeous exposition of the history of medieval French cuisine: Be sure to click on the images in order to start the slide shows, chock full of paintings depicting culinary life during the Middle Ages.

Categories: Art, Cooking, Food News, France, French Cooking, Paintings, Photography • Tags: Cuisine Francaise, Culinary History, Culinary History Expositions, Culinary History Images, French cuisine

The French Gastronomic Meal, UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity

November 18, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

French Gastronomic Meal The Committee 1. Takes note that France has nominated the gastronomic meal of the French for inscription on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, described as follows: The gastronomic meal of the French is a customary social practice for celebrating important moments in the lives of individuals and groups, such as births, weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, achievements and reunions. It is a festive meal bringing people together for an occasion to enjoy the art of good eating and […]

Categories: Cooking, Food News, France, French Cooking • Tags: Cuisine Francaise, France, Gastronomy, Intangible cultural heritage, Patrimoine mondial de l'humanité, Social practice, UNESCO